Ah, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…. We love them. We hate them. We wonder, “Where did they come from?”
According to Wikipedia, they were created by two dudes back in the ‘80s in a comic book. I first heard about them as a kid in cartoons and then toys. I thought they were cool. Ninjas are cool. I was almost a teenager and thought teens were cool. And of course Renaissance artists were cool. And turtles…take-it-easy cool. Yeah, TMNT were cool.
But I grew up, and I was like, “WHAAAAAAAT?”
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are the creators. I didn’t bother to look them up, but I’m sure they were cool dudes hanging out in NYC. Probably smoking something, downing a few drinks, watching ninja flicks while studying art because they were in NYC trying to make a living as artists. Hard core La Boheme.
But then they were starving. Crime was crazy (remember, NYC in the ‘80s). And they were like, we need to make some money, get outta here, forget becoming the next Jackson Pollack, let’s draw some comics.
They saw some turtles, rest is history.
Okay, that’s not the true story, I just made that up, but we’re talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here. Which reminds me, they’re mutants. Mutants could be cool, too, I guess.
There’s a new TMNT movie. Which means there’s a tie-in game. True to most tie-in games, it’s more marketing than a work of art. In other words, could probably wait to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. But for those TMNT die-hards, get it now on Amazon:
It’s an action hack and slash, cel-shaded co-op extravaganza featuring everything TMNT fans love about TMNT. Pizza, Rat, April, et al. Also including nostalgia-factor tapping to the game from ‘80s. Fun ride, if you’re a fan, but it’s a tie-in game and tie-in games are about market the movie, leach off the name. So, I’m not saying it’s a great game, but if you’re eating pizza and perhaps downing a few drinks, and need some time-killing this summer, go for it, why not. After all…
These ARE the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.